200-300 kg/h Farm-Scale Animal Feed Pellet Production System

The host flat die machine, model BH-210, carries a 7.5 kW motor and a rated output of 200-300 kg/h It needs no PLC, no bucket elevator, no batching silo and no automatic packing line. What it does need is a start order: crush one load, mix that load, press that load, cool it, weigh it, sew the bag. Only one of the three large motors is energised at a time, so the generator never sees more than 9.7 kW of running load, and a 20 kVA class set carries the line through a working day.

H2-01What Can a 200-300 kg/h Farm-Scale Animal Feed Pellet System Actually Produce in One Working Day?

Start with the nameplate. A 200-300 kg/h farm-scale animal feed pellet production system is one 7.5 kW machine plus a sequence rather than a plant, and BH-210 lists 200-300 kg/h: a machine rated that way does not hold its output for eight hours with a wheelbarrow and one operator. Practical planning runs between four and six effective hours per day once loading, cleaning, die checks and breaks are taken out, and it runs near the bottom of the rating rather than the top, because a 7.5 kW flat die mill on damp forage pulls its current and slows down.

Work it out from the rated output in the parameter table, which is a calculation and not a customer result. Press for five effective hours at an achievable 200 kg/h and you land on 1,000 kg of finished pellets per day. Press at 250 kg/h and you land on 1,250 kg. Run six hours at the top of the rating and you reach 1,800 kg. The honest planning band for one machine and two operators is therefore 800-1,800 kg per day, and the number to put against your herd is what your animals actually eat, because that decides whether you need one press session or two.

The seven steps below set that band, and the step that surprises people is step 7. Weighing and sewing by hand is slow in a way that costs nothing: if the bagging desk falls behind, the mill keeps running into a tote and you clear the backlog next hour. A line that cannot back up is a line that was over-designed. Size the mill against your daily tonnage first, then size the generator against the mill.

Send your herd size and the press hours your operators can realistically give the mill, and we will size the line against it. Request a capacity plan for ALI-PEL-ELAM-01 →

H2-02Which Seven Process Steps Make Up the Simplest Robust On-Farm Feed Pelletizing Sequence?

Seven steps, in this order, each handing the material to the next with a wheelbarrow or a manual hopper trolley. They are the whole of a 200-300 kg/h farm-scale animal feed pellet production system, and none of them needs a second pair of hands to run it.

1. Size reduction. A small hammer crusher, model MH-420, rated 600-1000 kg/h on 7.5 kW. It takes bagged grain and chopped dry forage down to a feedable particle size, and at a 200-300 kg/h line it runs in short bursts at part load, which is exactly the duty a hammer mill handles well.
2. Batch mixing. A vertical batch mixer, model KW-500, rated 1000 kg/h on 3 kW, one batch per load, discharged by hand into the pellet machine feed hopper. The library holds no batch size, mixing time or mixing uniformity figure for this unit, so the batch weight per press, the mixing time in minutes and the mix uniformity or CV are all to be confirmed by a factory test before you fix the recipe; what we do specify is that the batch never overlaps with the mill, because the whole line runs on the start order in H2-03.
3. Pelletizing. The flat die pellet mill BH-210 at 7.5 kW, 200-300 kg/h, die holes 2-8 mm, dies and rollers interchangeable.
4. Minimal cooling. Either open trays in a shed breeze, or a small horizontal cooler GMC-LQSF50 at 0.75 kW body plus 2.2 kW fan, rated 250-350 kg/h.
5. Sieving, only when needed. A hand screen over the bagging desk. Skip it for coarse 6-8 mm pellets; use it when a buyer rejects fines.
6. Weighing. A manual platform scale. The capacity is to be confirmed with the factory; the operator reads the finished weight by hand.
7. Sewing. A 20-40 kg bag closed with a portable bag sewing unit, held in the operator's hand. Manual or semi-manual, no packing machine.

What is deliberately absent is the equipment that normally appears on a feed line drawing: no bucket elevator, so the mill sits at floor level beside the mixer; no pneumatic conveying, so no blower, cyclone or pipe rack; no batching silo, so no steel platform and no silo wall; no automatic batching and no automatic packing, so no weigh-bucket, fill valve or control room. Fewer machines mean fewer things to break before breakfast, a smaller shipping volume, and a panel you can wire with contactors and push buttons instead of a programme.

H2-03Why Must the Crusher, Mixer and Pellet Mill Never Start Together on a Small Generator?

animal feed pellet mill

Because the two 7.5 kW machines plus the 3 kW mixer pull 18.0 kW if they energise together, and your generator is not 18 kW of steel. Eighteen kilowatts against a 20 kVA set is an overload before a single hammer strikes, because at a power factor of 0.8 a 20 kVA frame carries no more than 16 kW. Start them together and two things happen at once: the voltage collapses far enough that the mill's own contactor drops out, and the engine load jumps through the whole prime array at the moment the automatic voltage regulator is least happy.

The fix is a start order built from three contactors and two interlocks, with no logic controller anywhere:

• Step A. Crusher starts alone. Mixer and mill are locked out.
• Step B. Crusher stops, mixer starts alone, and the switch position physically cannot bridge crusher and mill.
• Step C. Mixer stops, pellet mill starts, only after the mixer has discharged.
• Step D. The cooling fan starts only while the mill is turning.

What that buys is a maximum simultaneous running load of just 9.7 kW: the 7.5 kW mill plus the 2.2 kW cooler fan. The crusher at 7.5 kW and the vertical mixer at 3 kW are smaller, so the three-machine worst case never appears. If you also fit the optional screw conveyor KWX50YP at 1.5 kW, it stays inside the same ceiling as long as it does not run with the cooler fan. The whole interlock is one changeover switch, two contactor auxiliary contacts and a set of markings on the panel door: nothing to programme, nothing to download, and any local electrician can replace the switch with the same rating.

H2-04What Diesel Generator kVA Does a 200-300 kg/h Flat Die Pellet Line Really Need?

on-farm pellet mill

Four numbers, each following from the last. Assume a set power factor of 0.8 and a reserve factor of 0.8.

1. Maximum simultaneous running kilowatts. 9.7 kW: BH-210 at 7.5 kW plus the cooler fan at 2.2 kW.

2. Highest starting demand. Direct-on-line start of a 7.5 kW motor pulls 5 to 7 times rated current, so at 380 V that is roughly 75 to 105 A of transient current, about 49 to 69 kVA of apparent power for the first one to two seconds, with the small running loads on top.

3. Minimum generator kVA, running-load method. 9.7 ÷ 0.8 ÷ 0.8 = 15.2 kVA, so the smallest standard frame is 20 kVA.

4. Recommended kVA with margin. A 20 kVA set is a floor, not a recommendation. Generator practice allows roughly 1.3 to 1.5 times the running load for the starting transient, which places the recommendation at 30 kVA.

That leaves the question you will ask us next: does a soft starter or a variable frequency drive shrink the set? Soft starter, yes, one size class. It clips the mill's inrush, which is the only thing that forces you up to 30 kVA, so a 20 kVA set holds voltage through the start. The saving is real but modest, and you trade it for a box with a shorter maintenance life than a contactor. Variable frequency drive, no, and we would not recommend it here. A VFD cannot reduce the 7.5 kW the mill draws while pressing; all it changes is the shape of the ramp. It also costs more than the starter, adds a failure point your electrician cannot repair locally, and for 60 Hz supply the motor must be rated on the plate for that frequency anyway. The simplest robust answer for a farm is a bigger engine and a simple starter.

H2-05What Motor Kilowatts, Phases, Full-Load Amps and Starting Current Does Each Unit Draw?

NFPA codes and standards for electrical and fire safety

All currents below are derived, not measured. Assumptions, stated once and applying to the whole table: three phase 380 V, power factor cosine 0.85, efficiency 0.90, so rated current in amperes equals motor kilowatts times 1.99. Direct-on-line starting is taken as 5 to 7 times rated current as a range, not a point value. Full-load running current is taken as 0.85 to 0.95 times rated current.

One basis for every kilowatt-hour per ton figure in this section, and the only one used anywhere on this page: a unit's nameplate motor kilowatts divided by that unit's own rated tonnes per hour, then added across the units that make up the build. The crusher is 7.5 kW over its own 0.6 to 1.0 t/h, so it is 7.5 to 12.5 kWh per ton; the mill is 7.5 kW over 0.2 to 0.3 t/h, so it is 25 to 37.5. It is not a meter reading, and the library holds no energy test report.

On 380 V / 3 phase / 60 Hz in Colombia. Three phase 380 V is the practical industrial supply, and 60 Hz is the regional frequency. The machines above are supplied as 50 Hz frames and re-rated by the manufacturer for 60 Hz, which keeps shaft power unchanged and shifts nameplate current slightly. The machine library holds no 60 Hz specific parameter, so the exact figures for your order are to be confirmed on the motor plate and in the factory test report. Do not buy the generator from a catalogue number alone. Send us the generator plate rating already on site, or the utility kVA at the shed, and we will return the verification table against it.

One row of context explains why the flat die route matters here for a 200-300 kg/h farm-scale animal feed pellet production system: a ring die machine of comparable output starts at 22 kW for the main motor alone, three times the mill on this page, which is a different generator class entirely. Flat die at 7.5 kW is what keeps the set at 20 to 30 kVA.

Want the per-machine amp and starting-current table built around your existing generator plate? Send the rating and we will check it. Request the electrical check for ALI-PEL-ELAM-01 →

H2-06What Input Particle Size, Moisture Range and Die Set Do 2-3, 4, 6 and 8 mm Dies Require?

FAO good practices for the feed sector

Four questions sit behind these dies, and the short version is: grind for the die, not for the dust; condition near 13 to 16 percent moisture before pressing; expect the pressed pellet to leave the machine warmer and slightly higher in moisture than the conditioned feed you put in; and on most farm rations you will not need a binder at all.

Input particle size. Press a flat die with material that is too coarse and you choke the die hole; too fine and you generate fines and return material. Work to a crushed top size that fits comfortably under the die hole, so a 4 mm die wants material screened around 2 to 4 mm, and an 8 mm die takes a coarser grind. The MH-420 crusher is rated 600-1000 kg/h, well above the line, so the grind setting is yours to make at the screen.

Moisture at the press. The machine library carries no moisture specification, so treat the following as operating guidance to be confirmed by a plant trial rather than a factory figure: press close to 13 to 16 percent total moisture and let conditioning time do the work a binder would otherwise do. Peat, molasses and high-oil seeds behave differently from a cereal and straw mix, and the first hour on a new recipe is the hour where you adjust.

Die set 2-3, 4, 6 and 8 mm. The BH-210 takes interchangeable dies across a 2 to 8 mm range. The practical set for one farm line is 4 mm for poultry and small stock, 6 mm for sheep and goats, and 8 mm for cattle and for any buyer who wants a coarse, hard pellet. Carry 2-3 mm only if you press for day-old chicks, and expect it to be the shortest life of the four because the compression ratio is highest. Minimum practical die set for this line: 2-3 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm, one of each to start.

Do you need a binder? On a farm ration built from grain, forage and a mineral or vitamin supplement, normally not, because the starch in the conditioned feed softens under the heat and pressure inside the die and re-binds as the pellet cools. Binder becomes a question with very high fibre or high-oil material that never produces that soft starch, and even then the first move is more conditioning moisture and longer conditioning time before anything goes into the recipe. The library holds no binder specification, so the answer for your own ration comes from a one-batch trial press.

Pellet discharge temperature and final moisture. The pellet leaves the pressing chamber hot and barely drier than the feed that went in, and it is bagged only after cooling. The typical figures for this class of flat die machine are a discharge from the pressing chamber of roughly 70 to 85 degC, falling to within about ±5 degC of the ambient once the pellets have been spread on trays or passed through the cooler, and a final moisture of about 12 to 14 percent for feed conditioned at 12 to 16 percent. Read those as typical operating values and not as a test result on your machine: the library holds no commissioning report for the BH-210, so each of them is to be checked against the factory commissioning test before you set a storage rule or a bag size. The practical consequence is what the whole cooling question in H2-07 turns on: a bag filled straight off the mill sweats in the stack, softens and turns to dust in the sack, so cool before you sew.

Ready to run the first batch? Tell us your ration and we will come back with the die, the grind setting and the conditioning moisture for it. Ask for the die and moisture recommendation →

H2-07Passive Tray Cooling, Low-Power Fan Assist, or a Dedicated Cooler: Which One Earns Its Power?

Hot pellets leaving a flat die carry heat and a little surface moisture, and bagged warm they sweat, soften and turn to dust in the sack. Three ways to get the heat out, in rising order of cost.

Passive tray cooling, 0 kW. Spread the pellets in a layer on trays in a shed with a cross draught and turn them with a shovel. This is Option A. It costs nothing to run and nothing to maintain, and its limits are honest: it needs floor area and weather, it takes hours rather than minutes, and in a humid week it can stall.

Low-power fan assist. One small axial fan or a domestic exhaust unit pushing air through the tray or a perforated floor, run only while the operator is turning pellets. The power is small because the duty is small; the point is that it compresses four hours of waiting into close to an hour.

Dedicated cooler GMC-LQSF50, 0.75 kW body plus 2.2 kW fan, rated 250-350 kg/h. This unit matches the line exactly and is the one piece of dedicated cooling we would put on a farm line. The library record notes that the power and fan-power column order on the larger sibling GMC-LQSF70 is suspect and must be read off the nameplate; the LQSF50 values above are as listed and should still be confirmed on the nameplate before the set is ordered.

Our recommendation is Option A plus a fan you switch by hand, and a dedicated cooler only if you are bagging for sale rather than feeding your own animals. A cooler that earns its power is one that runs every load, and a wet, dark season is the moment the LQSF50 goes on the quotation.

H2-08Can Solar, Diesel, LPG or Biomass Drying Lift Moisture Removal Above the Line Itself?

Drying is quoted separately because on this line it is an add-on, not a process step. Three options on identical assumptions: one wet batch of 600 kg, initial moisture 35 percent wet basis, final 12 percent wet basis, so 157 kg of water has to leave that batch. Every figure in this section derives from that assumption and nothing else.

Option A trades waiting for nothing, and in a dry climate it is the whole answer. Option B buys back the floor area and the hours, and is the one to price when your season is wet or your shed is dark. Option C is what most farms end up at once they see both quotations. One deliberate exclusion: electric resistance drying is not proposed as a mainstream option, because at this scale it puts several kilowatts of resistive load onto a generator-limited site, and the philosophy of this line is to take heat from the sun or from fuel rather than from the generator.

H2-09How Do Platform Scales, a Filling Hopper and a Portable Bag Sewing Unit Handle 20-40 kg Outlets?

chicken feed grinder

The bagging desk is where the seven steps end and where most farms lose an hour a day. Three pieces, all cheap, none automatic.

• Platform scale. The finished pellet is weighed on a manual platform scale at the bagging desk. Capacity and graduation are to be confirmed with the factory; what matters is that it is a scale a farm can still use in five years with a standard load cell replacement.
• Filling hopper. Where the mill discharge or the cooling tray sits above a hopper so the operator tips a known load into the bag without a shovel. Optional, and useful mainly for keeping the desk clean.
• Portable bag sewing unit. A 20-40 kg polypropylene bag, folded, closed with a handheld sewing head. The machine is to be confirmed with the factory and quoted as a consumable line item, because the thread and the needle are what you buy repeatedly. No automatic packing machine, no weigh-bucket, no fill valve.

Twenty to 40 kg is the right bag size here on purpose. One person carries it up a ramp, it fills in about a minute on a platform scale, and it keeps the fibre and the supplement homogeneous inside the bag.

H2-10Option A Minimum Power Versus Option B Recommended Farm Build: Full Side-by-Side Comparison

Two builds of the same seven steps. Option A removes everything not strictly required to make a pellet. Option B adds only items that measurably improve pellet quality, working hours, safety or uptime.

Floor area adds up from the packing dimensions in the table: 1.4 x 0.6 gives 0.84 m² for the crusher, 1.93 x 0.6 gives 1.16 m² for the vertical mixer and 1.15 x 0.45 gives 0.52 m² for the mill, which is 2.52 m² of machine footprint in Option A, roughly 4.0 m² once a working aisle is allowed, and 5.2 m² in Option B with the cooler.

The two kilowatt-hour bands above are the same basis as the last column of the table in H2-05 and nothing else: nameplate kilowatts over each unit's own rated tonnes per hour, summed for the units in that build. Option A is 7.5-12.5 for the crusher, 3.0 for the mixer and 25-37.5 for the mill. Option B adds the cooler's 8.4-11.8. Option A therefore sits lower because it has no cooler, not because its motors are smoother. Neither band is a meter reading; the library holds no energy test report, and both should be checked against the factory energy test before you build an operating cost model out of them.

H2-11What Does the Two-Year Wear-Part Kit Cover, and How Are EXW, FOB and CIF Cartagena Quoted?

The two-year kit turns a machine sale into a line you can keep running without us. It ships as one lot, before the main units, so the parts are on the shelf in week one rather than on a boat in year two.

Commercial terms. Minimum order quantity is one set. Prices are quoted EXW and FOB, and CIF Cartagena follows the same bill of materials once the final machine list is frozen, because the freight step is driven by the cubic volume of the lot. Lead time is fixed on the proforma at order confirmation, in two tiers: the window for the configuration listed, plus the extra time any non-standard build adds, such as a die set cut to your own bore pattern. Warranty periods, the exclusions on wear parts and the response route for a fault are written into the contract annex rather than left in e-mail. Installation is not required: the line stands on a level concrete floor, the panel is wired by a local electrician, and the English manual covers the start order, the die change, the roller gap and the bearing greasing points. The country of origin, the HS code per machine and the packing list are stated on the proforma invoice and are to be confirmed there; the packing dimensions above give the shipping volume, and the net and gross weight per crate are to be confirmed on the packing list.

Ready to buy the build that fits your generator? Ask for the EXW, FOB and CIF Cartagena figures together with the two-year kit. Request the full quotation for ALI-PEL-ELAM-01 →

Line summary, Option B

Note on the power figures: the totals below are summed from the single-machine ratings in the tables above, with the planning margin noted in each row shown.

Process flow, seven steps

H2-12FAQ: 200-300 kg/h Farm-Scale Animal Feed Pellet Line for La Calera

Q1: Can a 200-300 kg/h flat die pellet mill run on a single practical diesel generator?

Yes, with a start order. The mill alone is 7.5 kW, so the running load at any instant is at most 9.7 kW once the 2.2 kW cooler fan is included. That works out to 15.2 kVA at power factor 0.8 with a 0.8 reserve, so a 20 kVA frame is the floor and a 30 kVA diesel set is the recommendation when the mill starts direct-on-line. The three large motors are interlocked so they never energise together, which is what keeps the load that low.

Q2: Is 380 V, three phase, 60 Hz available for Colombia, and what changes on a 60 Hz motor?

Three phase 380 V is the industrial supply and 60 Hz is the regional frequency. The kilowatt ratings listed here do not change between 50 Hz and 60 Hz; only nameplate current does, and only slightly. The machine library holds no 60 Hz specific parameter, so the exact amperage for your order is to be confirmed on the motor plate and in the factory test report before the generator is bought.

Q3: Do I need a binder to make durable animal feed pellets?

Usually not on a farm ration built from cereal grain, forage and a mineral or vitamin supplement, because the starch in the conditioned feed softens under the heat and pressure inside the die and re-binds as the pellet cools. Binder becomes relevant with very high fibre or high oil rations, and even then you should first try more conditioning moisture and longer conditioning time. The machine library carries no binder specification, so confirm it with a one-batch trial press on your own recipe.

Q4: Will a soft starter or VFD let me buy a smaller diesel generator?

A soft starter, yes; a VFD, no. The starter clips the mill's starting inrush, which is the only reason a 30 kVA set is recommended instead of a 20 kVA frame, so it moves you one size down. A VFD does not reduce the 7.5 kW the mill draws while pressing, only the shape of the ramp, and it costs more, adds a local repair problem and requires a motor rated on the plate for 60 Hz. Simpler is the bigger engine here.

Q5: How often do flat die rollers and dies need replacing on a farm line?

Not from the machine library, which holds no wear-life figure, so treat any answer as a plant-trial result rather than a guarantee. What we do specify is the consumable set: one die each of 2-3, 4, 6 and 8 mm, one spare roller set, and the standard bearings and belts, all in the two-year kit. Running dies past their life is what damages rollers, so the die is the item to check first.

Q6: What does the whole line actually consume in kilowatt-hours per ton?

Use the one basis stated in H2-05: nameplate kilowatts over each unit's own rated tonnes per hour, summed, which is the only way we quote energy for a 200-300 kg/h farm-scale animal feed pellet production system. The recommended build comes to 44-65 kWh per ton and the minimum build to 36-53, with the mill alone at 25-37.5, the crusher at 7.5-12.5, the mixer at 3.0 and the cooler at 8.4-11.8 where it is fitted. Those are planning figures derived from nameplate power, not a reading from your site, and the library holds no energy test report, so the figure to trust is the one on the factory test for the units you order.

What to send us next. A 200-300 kg/h farm-scale animal feed pellet production system is only the right answer for your herd if the generator, the press hours and the ration are checked together, so send three things and every number on this page becomes a quotation: the plate rating of the generator you already own, or the kVA your shed board can give; the number of head you are feeding together with the hours a day your operators can put at the press; and your ration in percent by ingredient. What comes back is the sequential-start kilowatt list with the maximum simultaneous load for your build, the minimum and recommended generator size, the per-ton energy band for your own throughput, and an EXW, FOB and CIF Cartagena figure for Option A or Option B under reference ALI-PEL-ELAM-01. Request the quotation for ALI-PEL-ELAM-01 →